


Spooky Happenings

by jqueen17



Category: Phan, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Campfire Story, Camping, Camping AU, Fluff, M/M, Phan - Freeform, Slight feels, day in the life, doll story, fantastic foursome - Freeform, ghost story, minor injury, spooky story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-16 23:03:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7288213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jqueen17/pseuds/jqueen17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Picture it; a Fantastic Foursome Day in the Life Video-camping edition. How much trouble could this trip cause? You’d be surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spooky Happenings

**Author's Note:**

> My first camping AU! I really loved writing this one, and if it weren’t for @marimandic‘s amazing editing skills and genius ideas for a plot, I probably wouldn’t have. I really hope you all like this fic, and if you do, go check out @marimandic‘s blog on tumblr-she was a lifesaver during this fic (her patience with my random 3AM writing was incredible), and she’s an amazing person with an awesome blog!:) Enjoy!

Dan  
“Phiiiiillllll?” I called, only worrying that he was asleep after I’d already decided to yell. But I heard his footsteps in the hall shortly before he poked his head through the lounge door, raising an eyebrow over his glasses.

“Yeah?”

I waved him over, turning my laptop to face him. On the screen was a tweet from one of our fans that had over 500 likes that read when are you guys going to do another day in the life video? I held a finger up to Phil, scrolling down through the other comments to find the one that read Y’all should do another fantastic foursome video, and directly after that, go camping and film it. It took Phil a minute for it to all click together in his head, but when it did, the emotions on his face ranged from confusion to excitement to amazement.

“You want to go camping, in the woods, with PJ and Chris and film it? Really?”

I nodded, my face shifting into a smirk as Phil’s face settled on excitement. It was my favorite expression that he showed rather often, to my enjoyment. 

“Just picture it,” I started, using my hands to portray the image I had in my mind. “Day in the life of Dan, Phil, PJ, and Chris in the woods.” I grinned at Phil, who seemed to love the idea just as much as I did. 

“But there’s one problem-you’re afraid of the woods.”

I sighed, accepting the fact for what it was. “Yeah, I know. But we haven’t uploaded a really good video in awhile. At least, not since the tour. And besides, PJ and Chris might say no anyway.”

Despite that little part of me that hoped they would decline, they were both just as excited about the video as we were. Phil called PJ while I called Chris, and the four of us made plans for when we would leave, what we would bring, how long we would stay, and who would bring different pieces of filming equipment. After we had decided the weather this weekend was perfect, we said our goodbyes, agreeing that PJ would pick us all up in the morning since he was the only one with a car.   
After hanging up, Phil and I went to pack, and since it was pretty early still-eleven pm-we didn’t hurry, often wandering into each other’s rooms to remind the other of something they inevitably forgot.

“You have a jacket?” I asked Phil at one point, hovering in his doorway and watching as he stuck his entire upper body under his bed to locate what I assumed were the only pair of hiking boots either of us had.

“No, do you mind throwing my galaxy one on my bag? I’ll just wear it in the morning.”

I did as he said, having to knock an entire pile of laundry off his chair in order to get the jacket, which was, of course, on the very bottom.

“When was the last time you hung up your damn clothes?” 

Phil’s chuckle was muffled, but sincere. He thought my aversion to messes was hilarious, considering it was pretty ironic for me to have an aversion to my own life. I heard him make a noise of success, followed by a loud thump as he lifted his head. I hid my laugh poorly, looking everywhere but at him as he slid out from under the bed, rubbing the base of his skull.

“Haha. Thanks for putting the jacket there.”

I grinned, turning to go back into my room as Phil walked over to his bag.

“Do you want to wear these boots?”

I gave them a long, disgusted look before giving Phil an incredulous one. “Yeah, light brown lace-up hiking boots totally go with my skinny jeans. Okay.”

Phil snickered, setting them on top of the bag as well and continuing his system (or lack thereof) of packing, so I returned to my room, packing my most comfortable and least fashionable clothes, including my thermal shirt because if it was cold as shit at night, I wasn’t about to freeze my tits off. I hated the cold, and so, of course, I was always cold. Phil had once described me as ‘smelling warm’, but be that as it may, my hands were always cold enough that whoever I shook hands with or accidently brushed against nearly jumped back from shock. The only one who was used to it was Phil, but it obviously still worried him.

And thus, thermal shirt it was. I also packed my camo shirt from America, because if anything would make our fans go insane, it was either that shirt or my jat. And I figured camouflage was a little bit more wilderness-y than a sparkling gator girl hat. 

About an hour went by with both of us keeping to our respective tasks. Every once and awhile, we shouted something through the wall at the other, such as, “Is there even a slight chance of rain this weekend?”, or, “We’re bringing two tents, right?” There was something peaceful about packing, something in the familiar routine of putting clothes in a bag, but also in the variance of our usual routine of watching TV or browsing the internet. The mix was a nice change of pace, at least for me.

It was around two when both of us quieted down, me falling asleep browsing Tumblr and Phil watching videos on his phone, both in the living room. I just remember being cold, wishing I was at the very least sat next to Phil so he could radiate some of the warmth that contrasted his ice blue eyes and confirmed the title of ‘human sun’.

 

I woke up to the sound of someone pounding at the door and Phil falling out of his chair in his haste to answer it, muttering a few mild curse words as he did. Phil literally could not see without his glasses, so he was running into walls and tripping over everything on his way to the door, making me smile and push my face deeper into the couch cushion.

“Dan, wake your lazy arse up. We have things to do!”

I groaned at PJ’s voice, pulling the blanket over my head and holding onto it as he tried to yank it off.

“Well everyone, this is Dan in his natural habitat. Everyone unsubscribe because he’s holding the vlog up.”

I breathed out a laugh, nearly smacking the camera out of his hands when I sat up. “Stop I’ve got hobbit hair and drool on my face.”

PJ cackled evilly, going to film Phil making breakfast, I assumed. Chris walked past me as I headed to the shower, waving awkwardly like he always did.

“Nice hair.”

“Shut up.”

I took a quick shower since we would be in the woods without one for a few days, and I loved my shower more than most things but not more than my bed. It took me longer to straighten my hair afterwards than anything else, due to my insane hobbit hair and the sheer amount of water there was to dry out of it. I knew the guys were waiting for me, so after I was finished I threw on my eclipse tshirt and skinny jeans before joining them in the kitchen.

“You still look gross!” Chris called, sitting on the counter and eating what looked like a chip sandwich. I flipped him off, sitting in my chair and taking the bowl of my cereal Phil handed me, smiling as warmly as I could at him at eight in the morning. He sat in his chair, and we ate in silence while PJ talked to the camera, having always been the morning person out of the four of us.

“You guys are so boring, aren’t you excited?” He asked, still filming but not really vlogging. I gave him a look as I went to put my bowl in the sink, letting Phil answer him because I was still salty that he woke me up by ripping the only warmth I’d had away from me. Augusts in London were fucking cold, and I wasn’t a morning person and he knew it. So I put my head on my arms and let Phil fight this battle.

“We are excited Peej, but I’m not fully awake yet and I can’t see anything, and Dan’s grumpy in the mornings. And Chris just has a mouth full of chips… for whatever reason.”

They turned, and I lifted my head, to look at Chris, who indeed had crumbs all over his mouth and squirrel cheeks from taking too big of a bite. He waved at the camera, continuing his chewing as if we weren’t all staring at him awkwardly.

“Well,” Phil said eventually, dropping his bowl in the sink. “I’m gonna go shower and get dressed, you guys just make yourself at home. Dan, don’t go back to sleep.”

I gave him a thumbs up while keeping my head resting on my other arm, making PJ snicker and Phil sigh a small laugh out before the kitchen door shut behind him. I kept my head on my arm for another few minutes before standing up, stretching and walking into my and Phil’s rooms to toss our bags on the sofa. Phil had made me cereal; the least I could do was set his stuff out for him.

PJ and Chris had just started arguing what the best Mario Kart track was when Phil walked in, modeling an outfit that I had never seen before but matched him nonetheless. I hadn’t known he owned blue jeans, but apparently he did, paired with his tiger jumper and those damned hiking boots.

“Rainbow Road is clearly the best, guys.”

PJ and Chris laughed, and I smiled a little so I wouldn’t look rude, but I was mostly still admiring Phil without really listening to what he was saying. It wasn’t like he never looked really good-as a matter of fact, he never looked bad-but there was something about all those colors and his glasses and his still-wet hair that made me fall a little bit more in love with my best friend. I wasn’t going to deny it, either; I loved Phil Lester, and nothing would change that. Not his apparent disinterest of returning affection, not the pretty extreme friendzone I’d gotten myself into. Nothing. It was hard not to love him, no matter who you were, but our audience was right when they wondered how I could live with Phil for as long as I had and not kiss him or ask him to marry me. I didn’t know how I did it, either.

“Dan?”

I snapped out of my thought, blinking at PJ and wishing I could even pretend I knew what he had just said. He rolled his eyes, repeating himself a little slower than necessary.  
“I asked if you were ready to go.”

I nodded, grabbing my bag from the chair and tossing Phil’s his, which he gave me a sweet smile for. I smiled back, thanking the universe that I didn’t blush under stares alone.

Once everyone had situated their bags and random items in the back of PJ’s car (Chris had stolen our chips and insisted they were a necessity), I called shotgun, which Chris nearly fought me over, and everyone sat down for the four hour road trip to the closest acceptable woods for appropriate vlogging. 

Phil was in charge of filming the car ride, which wasn’t too terribly interesting but knowing the four of our audiences, it was necessary. 

“So everyone, how many of you knew Peej could drive?”

PJ shot the camera a thumbs-up while keeping his eyes on the road, so I turned around, rolling my eyes at him before addressing the camera. “If you can call it driving. Phil can do better and he only passed because his driving instructor won the lottery.”

Phil gave a small “hey!” of protest, while PJ smacked at me without taking his eyes off of the road. Chris took the camera and pointed it out the window for some scenery for our viewers, and after that, we charged the cameras in the car, saving the batteries for when they would actually be needed. 

As we settled into the long ride ahead, a comfortable silence seemed to fall upon the car. The only noise was the dull drone of the radio stations PJ let me frequently change. Eventually I found Stronger by Kanye, which obviously meant I had to start dancing. I had a good feeling about this camping trip, and whether that was because of Kanye West or not didn’t matter.

Phil  
I loved the simple things of life. With that being said, I also loved Dan Howell, which was quite possibly the most opposite of simple in every way. It’s a rule of thumb not to fall for your best friend, because while that worked out in movies fairly well, in real life it usually ended up in tragic heartbreak and whole pints of ice cream.

But as much as I tried to ignore the ever-impending crush I had, I was finding that doing so was a lot easier said than done, especially when said ever-impending crush was dancing to a horrible song and having fun and not caring about things like death and mortality and the usual thoughts of his mind. I raised one of the cameras, clicking the record button and just filming Dan act like a child, without him ever noticing. When the song ended and he started laughing at PJ’s sideways looks of concern, I returned the camera to it’s position on the seat, smiling as I met Dan’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

Another thing about Dan was the way he smiled. Not at most people, obviously; that would be his go-to smile of equal parts sass and amusement. When Dan smiled, really smiled, his eyes lit up and both dimples would dent his cheeks and my heart would melt just a tiny bit more with every grin. It was a surprise my heart wasn’t a puddle in the bottom of my stomach by now, considering the majority of Dan’s real smiles were directed at me.

These thoughts were a problem, obviously, because Dan didn’t notice. We were best friends and had been since forever, and that was basically it. We had our moments of flirting and whatnot, but we hadn’t done much since we were still kids. I think the reason was because we had too much to risk, if we actually dated each other or asked the other out and ending up ruining everything we’d built. That was the reason I never said anything, at least; I never fully knew what was going on in Dan’s head. I don’t think even Dan knew what was going on inside his head.

So here I sat, my head against the window of PJ’s car, gazing at the side of Dan’s face as he stared out the window and wondering what would happen if I reached forward and touched his cheek. He’d probably look at me like I was insane, and I really didn’t want this camping trip to be awkward because I couldn’t control my impulsiveness. So I stared at Dan staring, and the road trip passed faster than I thought it would.

Dan had fallen asleep by the time we stopped, and PJ told me to wake him up while they got the bags out of the back of the car.

“Dan?” I said softly, shaking his shoulder a little and causing him to snap awake with a jolt.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m up!”

I laughed, climbing out of the car and laughing harder when he stumbled out like he was drunk.

“And here we have a wild Dan, disoriented from napping in the car like the peasant he is.” PJ’s voice mimicked that of a nature documentary narrator, and Dan grinned and shot him the finger, making PJ grin and turn the camera to me.

“So Phil, thoughts on sharing a tent with one of us?”

I shrugged, grinning at the camera. “As long as I don’t get eaten by a bear, I’ll be fine.”

“Knowing you, you will.” Dan’s voice was teasing and affectionate, and I knew our audience would eat it up. He knew it too, so I decided to play along with this.

 

“Well why don’t you share a tent with me then, if you’re so brave? Gotta have some kind of protection, right?”

Dan grinned a cheeky little grin, and PJ was having a hard time not shaking the camera with his laughter. 

“It would be an honor, Philip Lester.”

 

We filmed a little of the tent preparation once we’d picked a spot deeper into the woods, which would require a lot of editing because of Dan’s constant cursing. Once it had gotten too difficult for just three of us, PJ put down the camera and came to help.

“What the fucking hell does this piece of shit even-”

“Dan,” I interrupted, taking the bendy part of the skeleton of the tent from him and clicking it into piece with little difficulty. “Patience.” As the word left my lips, the bendy piece snapped back up, smacking my shoulder hard enough to send me stumbling backwards into the entire thing, collapsing it back in on itself with my butt.

“What was that?” Dan asked, smirking a little and helping me to my feet. “The damn thing doesn’t work. We’ll let them do it. Let’s go cook.”

I followed him to the little fire pit we’d set up in to the side of the two tents, so the smoke wouldn’t linger when we extinguished it. I picked the camera up, clicking it on and walking backwards so I could film the guys while we walked.

“We should have known that Dan and I would be useless setting up outdoor equipment, so Chef Howell is going to scrounge us up some grub.”

Dan stopped dead, turning to the camera and giving me a disgusted look. “Did you just say ‘scrounge’ and ‘grub’?”

I nodded, laughing and making Dan facepalm and shake his head at both me and the camera. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’m getting into the outdoorsy spirit!”

Dan continued walking, shaking his head and waving me off as he did. “This is why we don’t do outdoors, guys. Phil can’t handle it.”

“I can’t handle it? What percent is your phone on, Danny?”

“Shut up!”

I clicked the camera off, getting the food we’d brought out of the cooler and setting it on the lid as Dan started a fire. Out of the two of us, he was still the only one who could do that every time. Apparently we were having hamburgers, which was easy enough that even Dan could manage to do it over a fire. We’d brought a frying pan too, because we weren’t exactly ‘roughing it’ material, so it wasn’t long until I was calling for PJ and Chris to come get dinner.

We ate, filming little bits like Chris putting every condiment on his burger and Dan nearly falling into the fire, leading to ‘Dan is on fire’ jokes and overall worthy bants of a day in the life video. Eventually we turned the camera off for the night, ending the filming with Dan taking a selfie with all of us and posting it on all his pages with the caption “What are all four of us doing in the woods? What’s this secret mission?? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.”

“Kind of anticlimactic, Dan.” Chris’ voice was muffled by, yet again, chips, and Dan just grinned down at his screen in response.

“The kid loves drama,” PJ teased, punching Dan’s shoulder a little and causing him to roll his eyes.

“Just because I’m the youngest does not mean I’m a ‘kid’, Peej. You’re only six months older than me.”

“Still. You’re dramatic.”

I knew Dan didn’t like being called dramatic connotatively, so I jumped into the conversation, lightly adding, “Well if we’re all going to be dramatic, why not tell ghost stories? That seems appropriate for a camping trip, right?”

Dan shot me a look that was full of gratitude and relief, and PJ gave me a look that said he thought I was a genius. We all sat around the fire, partly because that’s where you told ghost stories and partly because it was freezing already. Dan sat to my right, PJ and Chris sitting on the other side of the fire, and I wanted to let my mind think Dan was a little closer than necessary, but refrained from doing so. It was a delusion anyway that stemmed from all those years of phangirls drilling theories into my head of ‘heart eyes howell’ and Dan only looking at me when we wished things. Delusions.

“So, who’s going first?” Dan asked, rubbing his arms and scooting closer to the fire than I would have liked. I was looking at part of the back of his head now, and his long legs, if he stretched them out, could go into the flames.  
“I’ve got one,” Chris started, clearing his throat before going on in a deep, rumbling voice. “Once there were four YouTubers, gathered around a fire that keep flicking ashes onto the most attractive of them all, one by the name of Christopher Kendall.”

PJ shoved his arm, nearly making him fall over, and Chris stopped his ‘story’ with a light laugh. “Kidding, I don’t know any horror stories.”

We were all quiet for a long moment before a grin split PJ’s face, his green eyes dancing in the light of the flames licking the air between us.

“I’ve got one.”

I shivered, knowing he was serious based on the tone of his voice and the wicked smile still planted firmly on his face. He rubbed his hands as if warming them, but I knew he was just letting the suspense eat us all from the inside out before beginning his story.

“Alright. A long time ago there was a grandma, and it was her granddaughter's birthday, so she went to the store to choose a present. While she was shopping and she was looking at the dolls because her granddaughter loved them, she saw one doll that stood out from the rest. So she chose that one but noticed something about it; it’s finger nails were chipped with black nail polish.”

“Dan’s aesthetic,” Chris cracked, making Dan snort but wave him off all the same. Immersion was Dan’s only requirement for spookening; that and darkness. We definitely had darkness.

PJ smiled briefly before continuing. “She brings it up to the register and the cashier asks “Are you sure you want this doll?” The grandma says, “Well of course! It's…different.” The cashier reluctantly said okay, but warned her that whatever she did, do not paint the nails red. The nails were absolutely hideous so she had to do something, of course, so she painted them red to match the doll’s dress and lips. It was a vivid red, dark but bright, and the grandma thought it was a lovely shade. Her granddaughter loved the doll, and before she went to sleep that night after the party she put it up in her room, on a shelf with the rest of her collection of dolls. The new doll was by far the prettiest of all the dolls, and the girl loved it more than all the others combined already.”

“Great,” I mumbled, hating this story already. Dan was staring intently at PJ across the fire, while Chris twirled a stick between his fingers. I took that as a sign to hush.

“But when the little girl went to bed, she looked and the doll was at the end of her bed. So she took the doll and put it back, brushes her hair, and turns around to see it at the end of the bed again. She gives it a stern look, as if pretending to play mother, and says “It's not playtime, you need to go to sleep.” The doll responded by letting out a high pitched giggle, saying “I just want to play with you.” “It’s not playtime though,” the girl scolds, and she puts it back, walks to turn her light off, and the doll is sitting on her bed again. “It is NOT time to play,” the girl tells the doll, a little desperately. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, why won't you play with me?” the doll sings, making the girl begin to feel afraid. “I have school in the morning, so I can't play,” the girl tried desperately to convince the doll to listen to her, but it simply seemed to smile and sing, “Tick, tock, tick, tock, your brother’s in the shower. Tick, tock, tick, tock, now he's dead.” The girl runs and checks the bathroom, and her brother’s dead body was wrapped in the shower curtain, blood pooling around his head. She screams, runs back to her room, and looks at doll. It hasn’t moved. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, now will you play with me?” So the girl says, “Why would I play with you now, you killed my brother.” 

I hadn’t known PJ had a talent for telling stories, but I was entranced, never having heard this story and, quite frankly, getting pretty creeped out by it already. I wished we’d decided to film this; this was gold.

“The doll frowns, seeming offended. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, your mother’s in the kitchen,” it sings, slightly quieter. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, now she's dead.” The girl runs downstairs to the kitchen, where her mom had been washing dishes, and her mom has three knives stuck in her back, one making a curve across her lower back like a smiley face, with the other two knives in the place of eyes. She runs back and begs the doll, “I’ll play with you but only for a few minutes.” The doll’s head shakes slowly, and in a quiet voice again, sings, “Tick, tock, tick, tock, your daddy's in his office. Tick, tock, tick, tock, now he's dead.” The girl runs to office, knowing what she’ll find at this point, and her father is hanging from the ceiling from from his tie. She walks back, more slowly now, and she asks the doll, “Why would you do this to my whole family?” The doll only smiles. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, now will you play with me?” The girl shouts “No!” and buries her face in the pillow, beginning to really cry. “Tick, tock, tick, tock, you're in this room with me. Tick, tock, tick, tock, now you're dead.””

I thought that would be the end of the story, and I was ready to applaud PJ for an amazing job well done, but he kept going, his voice turning slightly more sinister and barely above a whisper. A gust of wind rustled the leaves in the trees behind Dan and I as he continued, and I saw Dan shudder out of the corner of my eye. 

“The grandma returns to the house the next morning, forgetting her wallet the night before, and calls, “Little Sally? Little Sally!” She goes to the girl’s room and shakes her, thinking she was asleep, and rolls her over to see that her eyes are gouged out from their sockets, blood streaming down the girl's face. The doll turns from it’s perch on the bed, it’s head making a ticking sound as it rotated while the rest of her body remained still. “Tick, tock, tick, tock,” she said slowly, matching the clicking of her head. “You know my secret. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock…” PJ stopped, letting us get used to the silence before screaming, “NOW YOU'RE NEXT!”

Dan nearly fell over backwards, jumping three feet in the air at the very least, and even my heart was racing as PJ snickered at the looks on our faces.

“You guys loved it!”

I grinned, shaking my head and shivering a little. It was getting kind of chilly. “You did great, Peej. Where did you learn to tell a story like that?”

PJ shrugged, humble as always when people began complimenting him. “I used to freak my little sister out with that story on Halloween. I didn’t know Dan over here hated dolls so much.”

We all looked to Dan, whose cheeks seemed a shade darker in the firelight. He stuck his tongue out at PJ, but still seemed a little spooked by the story. I thought his fear was adorable.

“You guys ready for bed?” I asked, wanting to take the attention away from Dan, who would never admit he was as uncomfortable as he clearly was. Everyone nodded, Chris even yawning as he and PJ climbed into their tent, and I held back the flap of mine and Dan’s so he could climb in after me.

“So,” I started, lowering my voice even though the others probably couldn't hear us over the roaring of the wind and the creaking of the woods around us. “What did you think of PJ’s story?”

Dan shrugged, hugging his knees against his chest across from me. We had a lantern illuminating the tent around us, and Dan’s face was cast in shadow as he ducked his head, as if in an effort to hide his face from me.

“Are you okay?” I asked softly, scooting over to sit next to him. My arm brushed against his, the little hairs on it raising both because I was sitting so close to Dan and because he was absolutely freezing. And not only that, because Dan simply being cold was nothing new, but he was shaking steadily. 

“Dan,” I said, a bit more forcefully, and he finally turned his head to look at me. His eyes were huge, and I knew he was cringing at every creak of the forest and every gust of wind against our tent. He quite simply hated the woods.

I put my arm over his shoulder, not really caring what it looked like I was doing because Dan clearly needed comforting. He leaned his head against my chest, and it was times like these that I forgot that he was an inch taller than me and broader than me and overall bigger. Dan was young and Dan was delicate and Dan wasn’t brave, and if I had any advantage over him at all, it was the fact that I got jumpscared and that was it. The horrors didn’t linger with me; they haunted Dan.

“Do you remember when we played Five Nights At Freddy’s 4 for spooky week last year?” I asked softly, trying to distract him from whatever was scaring him right now. He nodded against my chest, and I could tell he was smiling by the way his cheeks bunched up against me.

“And you remember how I was so scared of those little bears that when my room was dark, I’d make you turn on the light by my bed every night?”

Dan chuckled, still pressed up against me to where his voice was muffled when he answered. “You weren’t serious though, you were just humoring me.”

I smiled, knowing he was right but not caring. “Well still, you did that for a whole week after we played that, so I’m going to help you get over your fear of that doll tonight. Okay?”

He didn’t answer for a moment, and I was afraid he didn’t want my help for a split second before he nodded, tilting his head back to look up at me with a smirk on his face. 

“And how are you going to do that, Philly?”

It took me a second to respond this time, sheerly because there were no cameras and he was flirting with me and it made my heart nearly explode from joy. “I’m gonna tell you my own story, and you’re going to go to sleep.”

“I doubt that’ll work.”

“Don’t doubt me, Howell.”

Dan laughed, and I readjusted us so we were sprawled out on the floor, pulling the sleeping bags over both of us like a duvet. Dan’s head was still on my chest, and I hoped he would keep it that way if my story really did work.

“Okay, first, close your eyes.”

“Mmm, what?” Dan asked, already sounding sleepier than before, now that we were laying down. 

“Do you trust me?” I asked, Dan simply nodding against me. “Then close them. Now, imagine you’re at my house.”

“Your parents’ house?”

“Shhh, no talking. And yes, my parents’ house. Picture you’re in the backyard, where the swing is, and my mum just brought out lemonade that’s so sweet neither of us can stand it, but we drink it anyway because my mum’s awesome.”

Dan didn’t make a sound, his breaths making his chest rise and fall evenly. I lowered my voice slightly, murmuring now, really, and clicked the flashlight off as I continued. Dan tensed up for only a second before relaxing again, listening to my voice.

“So we’re drinking this horrid lemonade and my mum is telling you some stupid story from when I was ten, about how I was in a gang and she grounded me forever because of it, and all of the sudden we hear a noise from the house.” I didn’t know if Dan was still listening or not, but I continued, running my fingers up and down his arm as I did. “You ask if my mum got a dog because it sounded like a little woof, and she says no, but we both look at each other because she’s clearly hiding something. And then Martyn opens the door to the back porch, letting a blur of fur out that jumps onto your lap and nearly knocks you off the chair from it’s momentum. It’s a tiny puppy, a mix of some sort, and has patches of colour on it’s fur and a wagging tail and it’s slobbering all over your face because it can’t be older than a month. My mum says something about it being a surprise for us for Christmas, and you get so excited that we get to keep it that I let you name it.” I stopped, listening to the sounds of Dan’s slowed breathing and took in his relaxed form, smoothing a hand over his hair. “You can name it whatever you want, Dan,” I whispered, planting a kiss to the top of his head before falling into just as deep of a sleep.

 

I didn’t know what time I woke up in the middle of the night, and I didn’t know why, but I immediately felt Dan trembling beside me.

“Dan?” I whispered, and felt him jump just slightly enough to give away that he was awake as well. “Why are you awake?”

He was silent for so long that I wondered if he was still listening for the sound that had to have woken us up, but eventually breathed out an answer, his words blending with the wind outside.

“I heard ticking.”

I sighed, hoping he didn’t hear, and pulled him closer to me under our sleeping bag duvet. “It’s alright, bear. It was probably just a tree branch hitting something repeatedly.”

Dan obviously didn’t believe me in the slightest, but simply snuggled closer, pulling my arm more securely around himself and shivering for a long time before growing still. I was glad I could get him to go to sleep and stop shaking, but part of my mind wondered if Dan had been woken up by a nightmare and his shaking had woken me up as a result. Either way, I was sleeping so close to Dan that I could smell his shampoo, and that was enough to lull me into a peaceful sleep.

Dan  
The comfort Phil brought with his warmth and support was absolutely shattered the next morning, by PJ’s shouting voice. I groaned, thinking he was just giving the morning call for breakfast, but after a few more shouts I realized he was angry. I rolled over to face Phil, who blinked at me sleepily, unable to clearly see my face because he didn’t have his glasses on.

“What is he saying?” I asked, my voice sleep-filled and hoarse from the cold.

“Something about an animal. We should probably go check it out.”

I nodded, and we got dressed, not really caring about seeing each other in just our boxers. But I was still startled by the smoothness of Phil’s skin, pale and soft and more delicate-looking than I knew he actually was. Phil was strong, while I was soft, and while I may have looked bigger than him, he was tougher. I shook my head, putting on my thermal shirt to ward off the chill and trying not to look again in case I started staring. Again.

Once we had finished getting ready, we joined Chris and PJ, who were gathered around where we had set the cooler and our backpacks inside of it. PJ was fuming, examining the remains of the backpack while Chris simply looked at us pleadingly. Phil knelt beside PJ, talking to him in a calm, quiet voice and visibly settling him down. I looked around, seeing PJ’s clothes scattered everywhere-on the ground, on low-hanging limbs on the nearest trees, and even on the fire pit we’d made. I began gathering his stuff, draping the clothes over my arm and tucking any random items under my arm, trying to hold on to as much as possible. 

I stopped dead when I reached the fire pit.

“Guys? Could you come look at this, please.”

Whether it was the tone of my voice or not, they all walked over, Phil kneeling beside me much like he had beside PJ.

“What the heck is that?”

I picked the shirt up, which was covered in a red substance that Phil had been asking about, and found more of it under the shirt, soaking the ashes of the fire from the night before and turning the dirt an ugly crimson.

“Please tell me this isn’t blood,” I said, sincerely wanting it to be literally anything else. But Phil’s face confirmed it, so I stood quickly, walking over to lean against a tree and catch the breath that I had been holding for far too long. I heard footsteps behind me a few short moments later, and felt what must have been Phil’s hand on my back. But I wasn’t completely sure, as I was a little lightheaded from lack of oxygen, until he spoke.

“It was probably just an animal that was bleeding, or cut itself on PJ’s bag’s zipper or something. It’s fine, really-PJ didn’t like that shirt anyway.”

I nodded, still clamping my eyes shut and trying to breathe the smell of the blood out of my sinuses. I had a feeling it wasn’t that easy.

“Dan?”

I turned, looking at Phil as steadily as I could, and gave him a smile that I wasn’t sure portrayed anything at all but uneasiness.

“I’m fine. It’s good. I just think I caught something from this cold.”

Phil nodded, absolutely not believing me one bit, and kept a hand on my lower back as we walked back to PJ and Chris, who were packing the tents back into the bags.

“You two okay with hiking further into the woods?” PJ asked, raising his eyebrows.

I could feel Phil’s eyes on my face, waiting to see my reaction, so I nodded, smiling at PJ. “Of course. Who doesn’t love exercise?”

Everyone laughed, but I knew Phil was still watching my face more closely than usual, which meant I had to play a persona at least til it got dark out again. And then I could be terrified. Which I already was.

Phil pulled my arm, stopping us and calling to PJ, “We’re going to go look for something for a second, you guys just hang around here, okay?”

They shrugged, Chris fiddling with the camera and PJ pacing around him, still looking peeved. I followed Phil, who led us over by the fire pit again.

“Um, can we-”

“Shhh,” Phil assured me, directing us in a wide arch around the blood, and focusing on the ground as he pulled me along. I let him, not seeing what he was looking at until he stopped us in front of a large tree. More of the blood stained the ground at our feet, and Phil let go of my arm to step gingerly towards the tree, peering around the trunk and letting out a loud exhale.

“What? What is it?” I asked, beginning to step forward to join him. But Phil stepped backwards quickly, nearly knocking me over, and shook his head.

“It’s a badger. It looks like it got beat up pretty badly, ran all around the campsite last night-which is probably the noise you heard, badgers can make clicking noises-and got this far before it…” Phil stopped abruptly, shaking his head and steering me the opposite way. I was thankful for that, that he hadn’t let me see the dead animal, but I still had a bad feeling about these woods. Maybe it had been an animal that tore up PJ’s stuff, but what was still freaking me out was that I was sure I’d heard ticking last night, not clicking. And I still felt like I was being watched.

But as Chris brought out the camera for day two, I snapped a grin into place, laughing and joking and teasing and playing my part of danisnotonfire considerably well. The actor in me was proud. I tried to meet Phil’s eyes as little as possible without seeming weird, though, because if he looked me in the eye he’d see my fear.

And the fear was simple; I didn’t trust these woods. I didn’t trust any woods, but after PJ’s ghost story and after watching The Blair Witch 2 just last week, and after whatever that noise had been last night, I was internally having a meltdown. I wanted to go home, but this vlog was supposed to be a weekend camping trip and I’d be damned if I didn’t give our viewers what they wanted. I wasn’t a baby.

Well, I didn’t think I was, but I was the first one to lose my shit when Chris said he couldn’t find the map. After we had already hiked. For three hours.

“How the hell did you lose the one fucking thing you were in charge of?” I snapped, Phil subtly putting a warning hand on my arm.

“I think the demon ate it last night,” he smirked, seeing the look that crossed my face.

“Chris, stop screwing with him,” PJ sighed, rubbing his temples and looking more troubled than easygoing PJ was ever supposed to. “You’re probably right, the animal just tore it up or something, but that doesn’t help us now.”

We all fell silent, simply trying to figure out what to do. We certainly weren’t the four people equipped for getting lost anywhere, let alone in the unfamiliar wilderness, where we could actually die. I looked to Phil for a solution, just like I did in every other aspect of my life, but his face was just as fearful as the rest of ours.

I picked up the camera, trying to mask the shaking of my hands, and turned it to face myself. 

“So, everyone, we have a bit of a predicament on our hands at the moment. We seem to have…misplaced…our map, and so this vlog has turned into a survival video of four losers who can’t fend for themselves in normal society.”

The other three were giving me strange looks, Phil most of all, because I was still grinning at the camera while clenching one of my fists repeatedly to keep from screaming.

“Anyway, if we die, which there’s a chance we will-” Incredulous looks from the guys. “-I just wanted to get this out of the way now.” I took a deep breath, knowing PJ and Chris and Phil were thinking I was overly dramatic, but it didn’t bother or stop me. “Hello internet. I love all of you, you are the best audience a nerd who makes YouTube videos could hope for, and I really hope everyone will continue the only legacy I ever left with the internet support group. You don’t need the cult leader to support each other.” I turned the camera towards Phil, raising my eyebrows to tell him to go on. 

“Dan,” he pleaded, shaking his head ever so slightly. “I really don’t want to do this. We won’t die, okay?”

I stared at him steadily until he started speaking, probably to humor me more than anything else. “Hey guys. I’m sorry if the worst happens, because I know you will be sad, but just think-YouTube will be around forever. In ten years you guys can watch my videos in 3D, and just imagine the edits that will inspire. I’ll always love the stuff you guys make.” Phil swallowed, looking as if he were going to cry, so I turned the camera to PJ. 

“No,” he immediately said, shaking his head and taking the camera from me, clicking it off. “We’re not even close to being dead, so this-” he pointed at Phil, who was rubbing his eye. “-can wait. Just chill out and let’s figure out what to do.”

“We can follow the river,” Phil mumbled, staring at the ground and not meeting any of our eyes. “If we travel with the current we’ll eventually walk out of the woods. I think.”

“You think?” Chris asked, making me shoot a glare at him that silenced him immediately. He was the one that had lost the map, and while Chris was one of my best friends, I was still allowed to be upset. Furious, even.

“I took a survival course at uni. I’m 99% sure that’s what we do.” Phil sounded more confident this time, so Chris shrugged, accepting it.

I nodded at PJ to lead the way, hanging back to walk with Phil out of earshot of him and Chris.

“You good?” I whispered, looping an arm over his shoulder and guiding him around rocks and other crap littering the forest floor.

“I am now. Thanks.” Phil smiled, quelling the worst of my worries but not all of them. I shouldn’t have made him talk to his viewers-that was a stupid, brash decision that my overactive mind conjured up to help me cope with being lost in what was literally my worst nightmare.

Or, I had thought it had been my worst nightmare. That was before Chris saw the tree.

Phil  
Dan’s arm around my shoulder was very distracting, to say the least, and helped me not think about how those words might have been the last thing I said to the internet. 

But as distracting as Dan was as a whole, it couldn’t stop me from wondering why Chris was backing away from a tree like it was on fire.

“Chris?” Dan asked, removing his arm from my shoulder and jogging over to our friend. I followed, studying the brush at the base of the tree to see if there was an animal or other generally terrifying thing that might make Chris freak out. Chris was the calmest of us all; nothing disgruntled him. But I saw nothing but grass and leaves under the tree, so I looked to Dan in confusion, wondering why Chris was still backing away.

Only Dan’s face was twice as terrified as Chris’, and he was frozen in place, his eyes so wide and full of fear that the thought crossed my mind that maybe PJ was dead. But no-PJ came jogging back up the trail, looking at all of us like we were insane.

 

“What is wrong with you guys?” he asked, following Dan’s stare to the tree. I followed his stare, which was a lot more calm, and saw what had spooked both Chris and definitely Dan.

It was a drawing.

I walked right up to it, not believing what I was seeing. There was a drawing, out in the middle of a forest with the nearest house being on the outskirts of London, which was two hours away, of a doll drawn in red. Stuck to a tree. 

I couldn’t tell what it was drawn in, only that it was a color startlingly close to the color of the stains on PJ’s shirt back at the fire pit, and that it was almost definitely a child’s drawing. There was something scrawled on it, but I had always had trouble reading bad handwriting-I couldn’t even read Dan’s.

“What does it say?” I asked PJ, who had come to stand beside me. He simply shook his head, looking less and less confused and more and more afraid. I turned to Chris and Dan, who were still keeping a healthy distance between them and the tree, and waved them over.

“Dan, you have bad handwriting; can you read this?” 

If I thought my teasing him would snap him out of his terror, I was wrong, because he walked to me slowly and still stood a good five feet from the tree, not taking his eyes off the drawing.

“It says ‘you’re next’.”

And with that I stepped forward, ripping the drawing from the tree and crumbling it into a ball, tossing it into the woods as far as I could. Chris’ mouth actually opened in shock, and Dan looked as if he wanted to run from me now.

“This isn’t funny, okay? Someone had to have done that recently. So which one of you is playing these jokes, because it damn sure isn’t me.”

Whether it was the authority and anger in my voice that made them flinch or me dropping a curse word, I didn’t know, but they all looked at me like I was about to throw a punch.

“Seriously, someone had to have done it. Just fess up now so we can be done with this. I won’t be mad.” That was a lie, because if someone did confess I probably would be throwing punches. I was scared, and Dan was clearly about to break down, and even Chris looked uncharacteristically pale. That left PJ, and as much as I didn’t want to, I turned the full force of my glare to him.

“You were ahead of everyone when we were walking. It was your backpack that got destroyed. And you were the one who told that story last night. Did you do this? To prank us, or whatever?”

A lot of emotions flitted across PJ’s face, from shock to betrayal to anger, before he spoke in a clipped, controlled tone. “You think I did this? As a joke?”

I shrugged, meeting his eyes steadily.

“Are you crazy? I’m scared too, Phil! And I’m sorry that Dan’s scared of everything and that makes you feel like you need to defend him or whatever, but-”

“What did you just say?” I interrupted, so quietly that I was amazed he didn’t just keep talking over me. This was taking a turn for way more than the worse, and I honestly couldn’t believe we were having this conversation right now.

“You know exactly what I said. Dan’s scared so you’re being shitty to me to protect him. Well guess what? Chris is my best friend and I wouldn’t scare him like this. So how do I know it wasn’t you?”

We stared at each other for a long moment before we heard a branch snap, drawing our attention to where Dan had been just a second ago.

“Dan?” I yelled, quickly panicking as I realized what had happened. My anger towards PJ dissipated completely, and as I ran after Dan, I called over my shoulder, “Just keep to the river and you’ll be fine! Stay together!” 

“I’m sorry!” PJ called, and I just waved a hand to let him know he was forgiven before the woods swallowed me, just as they had Dan.

I ran as fast and as quietly as possible, trying to listen for Dan’s footsteps or anything else that may be in these woods. It was difficult, since I was the sole clumsiest person to ever walk the face of the planet, and I had been running for so long I had lost track of time when I nearly tripped over a body.

That was the thought that flashed through my mind-a body. Not a person, not my best friend, lying curled up on the ground. Just a body.

But my morbid thoughts only had time to briefly flash through my mind before it registered that the body was, in face, Dan. He was clutching his side, curled into a C on the ground and making very little noise despite how much pain he had to have been in. As I fell to the ground next to him, panting, he jumped, trying to move away from me before I placed my hand on his shoulder, stilling him.

“Dan,” I gasped, trying to catch my breath. “It’s me. Phil. You’re okay.”

I breathed for a few minutes until I couldn’t feel the stitch in my side anymore, and then sat up to tend to Dan. I wasn’t able to see why he was holding his side, but I was able to see the tear in his jeans and the cut on his knee.

“Shit, you’re bleeding. What happened?”

Dan sniffed, turning his head to face me but remaining on the ground. “I don’t know, I just wanted to walk away from you and Peej for a second and then I thought something was chasing me, so I ran. I tripped, but I think I hit a rock.”

I nodded, crawling over to the other side of him and taking a look at his knee. It didn’t seem to be hurt to bad, but it might have bruised the muscle and made it hard for him to walk. 

“What about your side?” I asked, nodding to where he was still clutching it with both hands. He immediately shook his head, avoiding my eyes, and I sighed. 

“Dan. I can’t help you if you won’t let me.”

He shot me a look before removing his hands, sucking in a sharp breath as he did. And I couldn’t help but gasp as well at the sight of the mangled flesh of his side. He had definitely hit something, and from the look of the twelve-inch gash running across his stomach and lower back, he’d hit a pretty huge, sharp something.

“Is it as bad as it feels?” Dan asked weakly, keeping his eyes on my face. I struggled to look calm, actually trying not to wretch in panic and fear. This wasn’t some game, some delusional fear anyone who watched The Blair Witch had; this was real, and Dan was really injured, and I really had no clue what to do.

“H-how,” I stuttered, breathing slowly before finishing my question. “How long ago did you trip?”

“I don’t know. Not very long, but sort of long?” Dan answered, looking confused by the question. I closed my eyes, trying to think. I may not have known what to do, but I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking at. I was the person to go on WebMD at midnight because I had a papercut that wouldn’t stop bleeding, just to see if I was suffering from blood loss or something. Something stupid, because I got bored and instead of researching how to actually fix these situations, I researched how to identify them. And one of the symptoms of a condition called Hypovolemic Shock, which was when a person lost 20% of their blood, was confusion. And judging by the sheer amount of blood pooling around Dan, and the size of the wound, and how he matched half of the symptoms, I was sure he was at least heading towards the condition.

Dan’s sweaty, pale face looked increasingly terrified, and I knew I was letting all of my emotions leak out onto my face. Which definitely wasn’t helping him.

“Okay, just breathe, alright? How do you feel, aside from the cut?” I tried to sound calm, tried to sound like I knew what I was doing, but I couldn’t have fooled Dan. But he humoured me by answering, still looking scared and weak.

“I’m dizzy. I know I’m still but stuff is spinning. And I’m tired, Phil. Can I sleep?”

“No!” I burst out, reaching my hand forward hesitantly. “Can I touch your neck? Please?” Dan simply nodded, tensing up for only a second when my fingers brushed against his neck. His pulse was fluttery, and he was cold, but sweaty. I moved my hand to his chest, feeling his heart rate, which was frenzied and pounding hard against my hand. And his chest rose and fell with each shallow breath he gasped, scaring me each time his breathing stopped for a split second.

He needed a doctor, and he needed one now.

I knew my phone wouldn’t work out here, so I rummaged through my backpack, forgetting what I had packed and what I had grabbed of PJ’s to carry this morning and just looking for something, anything, that would help Dan. My hand brushed over something small and rectangular, and I nearly fainted from relief when I realized it was a full box of matches. Two uses immediately sprang to my mind; one, Dan could get warmer, which was a good counter against any sort of blood loss, and two, if I lit a big enough fire, someone, somewhere, would see the smoke. And a smoke signal was a sign of distress.

I struck one of the matches, scooping a bunch of twigs into a pile and setting them ablaze before quickly gathering leaves and sticks and any other flammable object in a ten foot radius, unsuccessfully trying to start a fire nearly ten times. The small blazes I did start kept puttering out within seconds, and I had to light match after match in rapid-fire succession in order to keep the branches lit. I had begun to really panic when an actual flame licked the air above the smoking pile, making me nearly blow it out with my huge sigh of relief. Then I returned to Dan, who was weakly pressing against his side as best as he could.

“Can I lift your shirt up?” I asked, not wanting to considering how cold he already was, but knowing it was necessary. Dan nodded, letting out a small hiss when the fabric of his shirt grazed his side. I let the air hit it for a moment, taking my water bottle from my backpack and holding it near the fire until it was as close to hot as I could get it without burning myself. I wasn’t sure if hot water was the right option, but the wound needed to be cleaned no matter what. I knelt beside Dan once again, actually thankful that he looked more in pain than tired.

“Okay, this is going to sting, but the water is warm. Ready?” 

Dan nodded, his fingers digging into the ground below him as I slowly drizzled the water over the blood trickling from his side. That was another thing that scared me-the blood wasn’t gushing anymore, as it had clearly been doing earlier, and had reduced to nearly nothing. It meant that his heart wasn’t pumping blood fast enough to compensate for how much he’d already lost. I was going to need to locate whatever had cut him eventually-this wound really didn’t look jagged enough to be caused a normal rock.

Next I dumped my backpack on the ground, looking for anything that I could use to staunch the blood flow if I could get Dan to stand up. All of my shirts were way too thin, and Chris had the sleeping bags, so all I had was random stuff from PJ’s backpack. Which, oddly enough, included an entire roll of cling film. I shrugged, guessing this was better than leaving the wound open to the air.

“Alright Dan, we’re going to need to get you standing, or at least sitting up. And I need you to take your shirt off.”

Dan nodded, raising an arm for me to grab and pushing the other under himself to hoist himself up. I pulled his arm, not letting him fall even as he muffled a scream and thrashed as if he were going to sit back down. He had to place both hands on my shoulders to remain upright, and I had to remove his shirt with nearly no help from him. I didn’t blame him, though-the gash had started bleeding heavier again.

I took the cling film, rolling it around his middle until there was a solid layer of plastic over the gash, definitely stopping the blood for now. Then I pulled the warmest shirt from my bag and helped Dan slip it on, stopping the worst of the shivers. The fire took care of the rest, and he huddled so close to it I worried that he would accidentally sway and trip himself into it.

“Someone will come for us soon,” I assured him, hopefully sounding more confident than I felt. I handed him a bottle of water and a protein bar, watching him carefully as he ate and drank them painfully slow. He clearly wasn’t doing well, and I was so worried and lost in thought that I barely registered when he finally spoke.

“Do you have a camera?”

I nodded, pulling it from the backpack and handing it to him. He adjusted the screen to where he could see himself, pointing the camera and clicking the button to power it on.

“Hello again, internet. Phil and I have gotten ourselves lost in these godforsaken woods, so I just wanted to clear some things up in case we actually do die.” He lowered the camera to take in the pink-tinged cling film on his left side, taking a deep breath when he rose it again. “I got hurt, and I don’t feel well at all, and the only reason I’m even conscious right now is because Phil apparently paid attention in health in school. So I’m not kidding or being dramatic this time, guys. As crazy as that sounds.”

Dan stopped, rubbing at his eyes before gritting his teeth and continuing. Even with the fire shining on his face and the sun blazing above the trees, Dan looked translucent. And it wasn’t good, and neither was the shaking, or the sweat I could see budding at his temples.

“So if I do die, I want this on the video. Because PJ, Chris, and definitely Phil will live, because they’re not idiots that believed a ghost story and ran into the woods and got themselves fatally hurt. Only I could do that, because I’m ridiculous.” A small smirk flashed across his face before disappearing, being replaced by such an honest emotion that made me simultaneously panic and made my heart jump all at once.

“I haven’t ever told the internet everything. You guys must know that, because we all have our secrets, of course. Well most of you have, unsurprisingly, guessed mine.” I gave Dan an incredulous look, wondering where on earth he was going with this.

“I like Phil.”

I was speechless, gaping at Dan as he continued speaking, not taking his eyes off the camera. 

“Now that half of you have had a heart attack and the other half have thrown their phones because they don’t believe me, let me repeat myself. I, Dan Howell, like Phil Lester. And no, I’m not lying, and no, this isn’t a joke.” Dan rolled his eyes, even in the face of death keeping to his sarcastic brand. “I’m 100% serious. It wasn’t much of a secret, but I figure I should say it to you all as a consolation if I drop dead in five minutes. Fair trade? Probably not. I know you guys love me; I love you all too.”

Dan swallowed thickly, his eyes bright but alert as ever. He waved at me, finally looking at my stunned expression, and smiled softly before waving me over. I followed his direction, standing next to him as he extended his arm to get us both in frame. I just stared at Dan, silent.

“You see this?” Dan grabbed my hand, holding our intertwined ones up to show the world. “It’s happening. You see this?” Pulling me closer this time, Dan hugged me to his side with one arm. “It’s happening. Phil?” Dan looked at me, his eyes softening as they met mine. “I like you. A lot. I love you, actually. If you don’t feel the same way, delete this footage, don’t upload it, throw it in the river-I don’t care. But I’m done skating around the truth, flirting with you to satisfy not only our audience but myself, as well. It’s not enough anymore. Not if I’m so close to death I could kiss it.” Dan raised his shaking hand to my hair, brushing it out of my face so gently I wanted to cry. “How do you feel?”

Dan was giving me the choice, the deciding factor in our futures, and was filming it all. That’s how I knew he was being serious, as ridiculous as that sounds. Dan didn’t risk things on film that could accidentally slip-ever since that video mess in 2011, neither of us did-so this was serious. This was real, and this was happening. Dan…

Dan loved me, too.

I stared at Dan, not the camera, as I answered. 

“I feel the same way, only you’re closer to kissing something else besides death.”

And with that, I pressed my lips to his for the first time in too many years, and suddenly I was back in 2009. When things were simpler. When we were both still kids. When Dan wasn’t in danger of dying. I was back when kissing Dan was an every-other-day occurance, when we were both so passionately in love that it didn’t matter what the world thought about us, when love was a simple thing that didn’t hold the consequences we worried ourselves with now.

The kiss and nostalgia were over far too soon, considering Dan was still short of breath and too weak to really keep it up. But before he turned the camera off, he smirked at it and nodded, giving his two finger salute and clicking the off button.

“I can at least die now knowing I did that.”

I smiled, shaking my head and hugging Dan close to me.

“You won’t die,” I mumbled against his hair, just before he collapsed to the ground so unexpectedly that I could barely do anything to prevent it. I was about to start yelling his name when I heard the footsteps of a lot of people, choosing to yell to them instead.

“Help! We’re over here! Please hurry!”

As the footsteps sped up and grew louder, I stared at Dan intently, watching for the rapid rise and fall of his chest. The flutter of his eyelashes. The twitch of his nose.

I couldn’t see any of those things.

Dan  
I was never really sure how dreams worked when you were unconscious. Were they dreams? Hallucinations? Or flashbacks, in my case? Was this the ‘your life flashes across your eyes’ before you die?

If it was, I was okay with mine.

The scene in my head was the day of the first Phil is not on fire. We were in Phil’s weird Shining bedroom, goofing off, when Phil decided he wanted to film a video with me. It sounded so cheesy and ridiculous that of course I’d agreed, because honestly in 2009 I would have agreed to anything Phil had suggested. 

We filmed the video over the course of four hours, not having a bloody clue what we were doing but knowing it was hilarious and it was fun. I’d only met Phil in person the day before, so I was still kind of starstruck to even be in his room, because I was a kid.

I was still starstruck, here in 2016.

I don’t really remember why we’d even kissed, just that suddenly we were on the bed and suddenly Phil was on top of me. All the Skyping and the emails and the tweets and the texts had never done Phil justice, so a part of me still didn’t believe it was real. We were real, and we were really making out and filming a video and having the most fun we’d ever had.

If that was going to be my life flashing before my eyes, the memory of smudging the sharpie on our faces because we’d been waiting for far too long to kiss, then I’d die happy.

Phil  
Dan wasn’t breathing. That’s all I could think as a man took him from my arms, hoisting him between himself and another man, both dressed in green. Hunting clothes, I noted, as a smaller girl a lot younger than the men touched my shoulder.

“Sir, are you alright?”

I shook my head, beginning to walk after the two men, and she tightened her grip on my shoulder.

“They’re going to load your friend into the truck and take him to the hospital-it’s not far. He’s alive, so I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

All I really heard her say was he’s alive.

“My name is Stephanie-that's my brother and my dad, holding your friend. I’m going to help you, okay?”

I nodded, finally focusing all of my attention on her and not on Dan’s situation, up ahead of me and out of my sight.

“I’m Phil, and that’s Dan-he said he tripped on a rock, but the cut…”

Stephanie nodded, gesturing for me to follow her to where Dan had been laying, blood glistening on the leaves on the ground and staining the dirt black. She examined the ground, much like I had earlier today, and slowly kicked leaves out of the way to locate the object that had injured Dan. I should have done that earlier, I thought to myself, just as her boot hit something solid. 

Kneeling to the ground, Stephanie probed the ground with her hands, holding up an object with just her index finger and her thumb.

A machete, rusted from time and weather, that must have been lodged into the ground until Dan fell on it.

“Well, here’s the problem. Your friend-Dan-has to be the most unlucky person alive to land on this the way he did.”

I nodded; it was true. If there was something to trip onto, me or Dan would find a way.

“Our friends are still in the woods somewhere. I left them by the river, but I’m not sure if they stayed…”

Stephanie smiled, jerking her chin towards the direction her family had carried Dan and led the way as we started in that direction. “We found them walking by the road-you guys were really close to wandering out by yourselves. You would have, had your friend not tripped.”

I sighed, thanking everything in this universe that we were all okay. We weren’t going to get mauled by a bear or starve to death or…

“Stephanie?” I asked, walking faster to catch up with her, a few paces ahead of me. “We found this drawing today, and we were wondering...”

Laughing, Stephanie waved her hand, as if she could physically wave the thought from the air because it was so silly. “I thought we’d gotten all of those-last year a lot of the kids in the advanced film class made a parody of The Blair Witch Project, and they promised they’d collected all the drawings. They freak lots of tourists out, that’s for sure.”

I smiled back at her, my nerves finally calming down to an almost normal level. If I could figure out if Dan was really alright, I might actually think this entire camping trip wasn’t a complete waste of our time. But I remembered that Dan had said he loved me, and I’d kissed him, and we had enough footage to make a pretty epic video.

So it wasn’t a waste of time, after all. Not at all.

Dan  
I really thought I’d died. The beeping of a machine and the burning of my skin and the smell of antiseptic-it was hell, in a sense. Which was logical-of course my personal hell would be a hospital.

But I was sure my personal hell didn’t include Phil. Phil was going to Heaven if anyone on earth was, that was for sure. And yet, I knew he was there next to me, even if I was too weak to open my eyes to look at him. I knew his hand was in mine, holding it tightly, and I knew he smelled like citrus and sugar even after being out in the woods for two days.

And that’s how I knew I was okay.

It took all of my effort to squeeze Phil’s hand, and that small twitch of pressure made him squeeze back, no doubt leaning over me to see if I was awake.

“Dan? Dan? Are you okay?”

I didn’t have the energy to answer, but I hoped I smiled enough for Phil to see it. 

 

The next time I woke up, the pain was more prominent and the grogginess less. I was able to blink my eyes open, wincing against the brightness of the small monitors on the wall opposite my bed. Phil was still holding my hand, but his head was lolled to the side, fast asleep. I smiled at his adorableness, trying to pry my hand away from his without waking him up and failing horribly. His head snapped up, his eyes finding mine quickly despite not being able to fully see me.

“Dan! You’re awake.”

I nodded, watching his face closely. He just seemed relieved, relieved and… tired, I guess. But it seemed to be more than that.

“Are you okay?” we asked at the same time, making each other giggle at our weird synchronization. 

“I’m fine,” I said first, smiling at Phil as convincingly as possible. “Now why do you look so beat up?”

“I was worried about you,” Phil admitted, looking down and playing with my hand. Even after all we’d been through, he was still bashful.

“Well, thank you.” I smiled softly, just as the nurse came in to assess my vitals and whatnot. She grinned brightly when she saw I was awake, and looked between Phil and I like we were the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

“Well hello sleeping beauty. Feeling better?” she chirped, sounding very posh and northern all at the same time. I simply smiled, watching her click buttons on a small keypad and push some buttons on the machines by my side.

“The blood transfusion seemed to help a lot, which is fantastic. You’ll heal a lot faster now.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, but she didn’t see, giving Phil a big smile as she shut the door behind her. I immediately turned to give Phil the same questioning stare I’d given the back of her head.

“Who gave me a blood transfusion? Where did they find someone with AB- blood?” I asked, watching Phil’s face closely again. There was a brief moment of pride before his blank poker face replaced it as he shrugged.

“Phil. You did not.”

Hiding his smile terribly, Phil asked, “I didn’t what?”

“Give me a blood donation!”

He couldn’t hide his grin any longer, rolling up the sleeve of his fox jumper to reveal a red bandage. “You lost a lot of blood, Dan. And you have a rare blood type. It’s pure luck I knew I was AB- too.”

I was speechless. Phil had literally saved my life, and he wasn’t even going to tell me. I shook my head, smiling back at his beaming face because he radiated sunshine when he smiled, and it was contagious.

“Thank you. But I hate you.”

“You’re welcome. And I love you.”

I blushed, squeezing his hand again before remembering something. “What did you do with the footage on the cameras?”

Another sparkling grin as he handed me his phone, a video by the name of A Day in the Life of the Fantastic Foursome with a Small Twist Ending pulled up on the screen.

“Clever,” I smirked, before Phil shushed me and made me watch it. 

The video had everything any normal ditl video had, bants and cursing and boring parts and the usual, but then the footage of the next day came up, and you could practically feel the sinister air it had taken on.

They hadn’t added me and Phil’s proclamations, which I was thankful for, but PJ had apparently filmed the drawing, which Phil had captioned “this turned out to be a leftover prop from some drama students doing a parody video of TBW but it scared everyone crapless because PJ told a doll story last night.” I snorted, not taking my eyes from the screen. 

But instead of the “twist ending” coming up next, there was a clip of Phil, standing outside what must have been my hospital room, looking both better and worse than he did right now. Or, more accurately, less pale.

“So before you see the last of our adventure in the woods, this is a PSA from me. Dan wanted you all to see this next footage, so please, enjoy. I’m about to go get my blood drawn because, well, you’ll see in a minute. BYE!” And with that, Phil waved, transitioning to my words in the woods, every last bit of it, right down to where I smirked like the little shit I am and ended it. Unedited. Raw footage of me spilling my guts to the internet.

“Has the phandom exploded yet?” I asked, causing Phil to roll his eyes. 

“Of course. I actually got a phonecall from my mother about how she ‘knew it!’ and how good of a job we had done coming out. My mother said that!”

I cracked up, reaching for my phone on the desk and thanking the universe I had Twitter and Tumblr notifications turned off, because oh sweet Jesus my phone would have shattered at the rate of which they were sent. I did, however, have my texting notifications on, so I saw that the three most recent ones were from my mum, Louise, and Tyler.

Mum: Sweetie I love you so much and I’m so sorry I can’t come see you, but Phil told me everything was okay and I just wanted to let you know I’m so proud of you!! 

I smiled; my mum had always loved Phil. 

The next message was from Louise, and nearly blinded me with all the emojis. But the message was clear:

Lou: AHHHHHHHHHH WHY DID NO ONE LET ME KNOW FIRST OMG OMG PEOPLE ARE MESSAGING ME ON EVERYTHING WANTING TO KNOW IF I WAS IN ON IT YOU TWO LITTLE BEANS HAVE BROKEN THE INTERNET

I burst out laughing, showing Phil the text and making him laugh so hard he stuck his tongue between his teeth.

And the final message was from Tyler Oakley, who had just as many emojis as Louise, more cursing, and not so many all-caps.

Tyler: my parents have finally come out to all their children, thank baby Jesus above because everyone has been waiting for seven goddamn years. Bout time you little bitches did something about it. LOVE U!!xoxox  
also ps I really hope you’re okay and I want DETAILS SON

Gotta love your friends, right?


End file.
